Pomegrenade — Occupying the Territories

Pomegrenade photo­graph (H 68 x B 100 cm)
Insur­ance price 1000 Euros

Pomegrenade 2 digi­tally hand­written texts in English and German (2 x (H 100 x B 81cm))
Insur­ance price 2000 Euros

Pomegrenade consists of a photo­graph of red-stained hands, de-pulped pome­gran­ates and red-stained white linen; also to be seen are the 2 digi­tally hand­written texts in red and black, in the form of a pome­granate or hand grenade, displaying Sylvia Ury’s story, although it is Tanya who tells her late mother’s tale. As a child Sylvia fled with her Jewish parents from Nazi Germany to England. As a young woman, after trav­el­ling with her mother to visit rela­tives in Pales­tine, she decided to stay and fight in the War of Independence.

The word play of the invented word pomegrenade is more overt in the German language, where Granat­apfel” (pome­granate) is an apple grenade”; the apple from the tree of knowl­edge and the expul­sion from the Garden of Eden are implied here.

…By the 17th century, cricket ball-sized iron spheres packed with gunpowder and fitted with slow-burning wicks were being used in Europe. Soldiers would throw them to breach defences during siege oper­a­tions. Because of the weapon’s resem­blance to a pome­granate, it was called a grenade and the soldier a grenadier…” Nader Fekri, Notes and Queries, Guardian Weekly January 26-February 1 2007

For the DVD version of Promised Land, several series of photographs taken with a drive camera func­tion are displayed within the space of a few seconds: pome­gran­ates are de-pulped, by a woman (the artist), whose face is not in view. Dressed in white, sitting in front of a table with a white table­cloth, she wipes her red-stained hands against her white blouse.

Tanya Ury


Infor­ma­tion

Concept, text, perfor­mance and voice over: Tanya Ury

Text editor: Amin Farzanefar

German trans­la­tion Gelobtes Land: Tanya Ury and Amin Farzanefar

Camera: David Janecek

Digital processing: Claudia Stasch

DVD edit: Rainer Nelissen

DVD image correc­tion Pixel2motion — crossmediadesign

Bibli­og­raphy

Moses and Monotheism, An Outline of Psycho-Analysis and Other Works, Sigmund Freud 1937 – 40, Vintage, The Hogarth Press UK, 2001 ISBN 0099426781

Precar­ious Life — The Powers of Mourning and Violence, Judith Butler, 2004 publ. Verso, ISBN 1 84467 005 8

Andreas Kilcher: The Moses of Sinai and the Moses of Egypt. Moses as Magi­cian in Jewish Liter­a­ture and Western Esoteri­cism. In: Aries. Journal for the Study of Western Esoteri­cism. Edited by Roland Edighoffer, Antoine Faivre and Wouter J. Hane­graaff. 4, Heft 2 (2004), S. 148 – 170. Leiden (NL)

New English Bible

Luther­bibel


Presen­ta­tion

2005 (2 – 18.12.) DVD Version, group exhi­bi­tion, Traum und Trauma — Zur Idee des Staates Israel in Film und Video, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (Dream and Trauma — On the Idea of the State of Israel in Film and Video) (D) 

2005 (7.12) Seminar & trailer, Confer­ence: Jüdische Frauen in Geschichte und Gegen­wart (Jewish Women in the Past and Present), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Wesseling nr. Bonn (D) 

2006 (27.2) Peer Critique, trailer, Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum (GB) 

2006 (5.4.) Profes­sional Prac­tice Seminar with trailer, Fine Art Depart­ment, Sheffield Hallam Univer­sity (GB) 

2006 (6.4) Trailer presented in Seminar within Cathy Gelbin’s PhD. Confer­ence course: Gender and Visual Arts, Holo­caust Studies, Royal Holloway, London (D) 

2006 (6.5. – 18.6.) Jahre­sausstel­lung (Yearly exhi­bi­tion), Kunstverein Rosen­heim (D) 

2006 (10.5) Körper­bilder (Body Images), seminar and video trailer, Kunstverein (Art Centre) Dort­mund (D) 

2006 (14.8) Promises: DVD projec­tion, solo exhi­bi­tion, Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum (GB) 

2006 (29.8. – 31.8.) DVD projec­tion, group exhi­bi­tion, c.sides festival, Inter­na­tional Conven­tion Center, Jerusalem and projec­tion with discus­sion, Jerusalem Cine­math­eque, evening of 29.8. (IL) 

2006 (6.10. – 27.10) Promised Land: 3 photographs: Beelze­bu­larin and 2 digi­tally hand­written texts in English and German, Virtual Resi­dency, Galeria Biala, Centrum Kultury, Lublin (PL) 

2007 (23.3.) On the online Femi­nist Art Base: www​.brook​lyn​mu​seum​.org… audio extract (English) from Promised Land„ The Eliz­a­beth A. Sackler Center for Femi­nist Art, The Brooklyn Museum, New York (USA) 

2007 (10.3.) Promised Land: Beelze­bu­larin awarded a commen­da­tion in the Inter­na­tional Jewish Artists of the Year Awards, Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art (GB) 

2007 (11.3. – 9.4.) Group exhi­bi­tion, DVD projec­tion, Connected, opening 12 am, Jewish Cultural Days, Altes Museum im BIS-Zentrum (Old Museum in the BIS Centre), Moenchenglad­bach www​.connected​-mg​.de (D) 

2007 (6.1116.12) Opening 5th November, ending 16th December, Promised Land DVD, group exhi­bi­tion Dias­pora and Trou­bles curated by Tanya Ury, Kunst­bunker Tumulka, Munich (D) 

www.kunstbunker-tumulk…

www.kunstbunker-tumulk…

2008 (27.1) Screening with discus­sion, Anadoma Film/Video-Festival (25. – 27.1), Lot-Theater, Braun­schweig www​.anadoma​.de/ (D)

2009 (30.43.5) 17.30 hours — 1st May, screening of Promised Land (German version) with discus­sion, Limmud Festival, Werbellinsee, Jugen­der­hol­ungs- und Begeg­nungsstätte (Youth Relax­ation and Meeting Place) (D)


Publi­ca­tions & Press

2005 (12) Inter­view Isabella Herskovics, Saar­ländis­ches Radio (D) 

2005 (4.12) Inter­view Dominik Rzepka, Radio Dom, Cologne (D) 

2006 (5.2006) Image of Beelze­bu­larin in Jahre­sausstel­lung (yearly exhi­bi­tion) cata­logue, Kunstverein Rosen­heim (Art Centre), (D) 

2006 (26.8) Inter­view with Aron Hadar and image: Promised Land: Beelze­bu­larin, Ha’aretz (IL) 

2008 (9) Promised Land: 3 photographs: Beelze­bu­larin and 2 digi­tally hand­written texts in English and German, Virtual Resi­dency cata­logue ISBN 9783981220803 (D) www.virtual-residency.…

2008 (11) Beelze­bu­larin discussed in article on Tanya Ury (in German) by Hartmut Bomhoff with image of Beelze­bu­larin, Jüdische Zeitung (monthly), Berlin (D) article as PDF

www.j‑zeit.de/archiv/a…

2009 (1) Anadoma Film/Video-Festival, Braun­schweig cata­logue, discus­sion with Florian Krautkrämer on the video Promised Land (pdf) (D)

2009 (4) Image of Beelze­bu­larin in Zeek: A Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture (USA)

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